Submerged Lands

In countries such as Britain and Israel, where afforestation programs have been a large scale success over a long period of time, there are lessons to be imparted to other countries and standards to be set for others to follow.

Israel is a dry, mainly desert country and their success in keeping the spread of desert at bay alongside introduction of biodiversity should be utilised by other countries with similar conditions. Sharing knowledge gained in Britain over a period of nearly a century, where afforestation programmes were started as far back as 1919, will be as valuable as learning from the failures of afforestation in other countries.

Education lies at the heart of environmental improvement. Implementing and maintaining a knowledge-bank across borders will assist in tackling deforestation issues and aiding with reforestation as well as afforestation programmes across the globe.

Education

Giving people a say in how their land is used will also be important. In developing countries charities have proven that involving local communities in smaller scale projects is hugely beneficial and key to the success or failure of a project.

When the British government recently decided to allow sales of British woodlands, large scale protests forced them to rethink. Finding out how people use the forests around them, how they depend on them for a variety of activities and for economic reasons must be at the outset of such a long-term project as afforestation.

Encouraging understanding of the importance of our forests to our climate and to our planet is part of an overall educational process. Re-thinking our role within nature is part of that, too. We have much to learn from indigenous people who have studied the forest plants and wildlife around them for thousands of years. They should therefore be part of global forest related programmes.

New Ways of doing Business

Working with people who are directly affected by the new forest areas should also include finding new sources of nature-based, eco-friendly economies. In the past we used our forests for all sorts of small scale businesses and much of this has been lost. Perhaps a reassessment of some of these “forest-ways” will show that sustainable business ideas can be generated.

Energy efficient housing stock has still not been implemented across many parts of the world; Britain in particular lags far behind other European countries when it comes to quality building and house construction. Timber and other naturally grown resources such as straw can be used to build better homes. Balancing the need for the right kind of timber and ecologically sound planting will be crucial.

Afforestation programmes must look at the landscape as a whole and provide an integrated part of a country’s economy, rather than serving just one or two sectors such as the timber industry and tourism for example. At present, agriculture and forestry are pretty much divided sectors but a more combined effort should yield better results for a far larger number of people who depend on a local income derived from the land.

Afforestation is a veritable means through which you can help in saving the atmosphere from the effect of global warming.  Afforestation means planting of trees.  Owing to urbanisation and commercialisation, the world is losing out its timber stock on yearly basis. Besides, the economic importance of timber has accelerated the rate at which timbers are felled today.  We have today a good number of furniture made of wood.  Wood can also be used in producing a lot of things other than household furniture.

Felling trees has some consequences on the environment.  It increases the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere on daily basis.  In our study of biology, it is made known to us that trees breathe in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen.  When these trees are cut down in great quantity, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere on daily basis will certainly increase.  But the quantity they would have ordinarily inhaled goes up into the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that deplete the ozone layer making it possible for the earth’s surface temperature to increase rapidly as a result of too much heat from the sun.  The ozone layer shades us from direct heat from the sun.  When it is depleted by greenhouse gases the earth will remain without shelter.  Besides falling of trees, it also affects man greatly.  Trees increase the quantity of oxygen available to man.  Trees exhale oxygen which is necessary for the survival of man and other animals.  So, when deforestation becomes the order of the day man will also suffer because of insufficient supply of oxygen.  Other animals too will also suffer.  The bottom-line is that we have to encourage afforestation.  You can begin by planting flowers in your home.

This will not only take up some quantity of carbon dioxide, it will also give you oxygen in return to the carbon dioxide you gave it. Besides it will also add beauty to you homes. Trees also provide shade to both man and animals. Trees house quite a huge number of animals and birds. When you plant trees you are helping to preserve the habitat of these animals and birds.

Another way you can help to encourage afforestation is by refusing to buy products made of woods.  When you do not buy furniture made of wood, the business of tree fellers will definitely collapse.

Do you have a proper waste management scheme in your home?  Waste management is not the duty of the government alone.  We can help them in that regard in our little.  Always ensure that you separate decomposable refuse from those ones that cannot decompose. They will be taken to recycle centre.  Some people mix up all their refuses together thereby complicating the work of composters and other people involved in waste management.

There are many ways through which you can assist in stopping global warming from your home.

Using indiscriminate afforestation where previously there was no woodland may well cause more harm than good, wiping out wildlife present only in meadows and wetlands for example. Programmes across Poland and Spain have seen vast areas of land being given over to afforestation, but planting mainly conifers means that the soil’s acidity is affected negatively, sustaining little wildlife and preventing ancient and ecologically more valuable species of plants to be lost.

Money and Greed

In afforestation the emphasis lies in maximising the land and local resources with high yield species of trees. Fast growing trees bring in revenue sooner and we want timber, wood pulp and paper pulp at an ever increasing level, not to mention wood to be used as fuel. As a result, plantations of one or a few species of trees are springing up in the most unlikely places in the Northern Hemisphere.

Afforestation projects which ignore local conditions and which are undertaken without a thorough understanding of the existing landscape can be responsible for ecological disaster. Timber plantations soak up vast amounts of water, which is needed elsewhere to sustain life. Pine and fir trees not only turn the soil around them acidic, they also spoil the surrounding rivers and lakes with their acidity levels.

Supporters claim that these plantations help protecting ancient forests across the world, but critics argue that the appetite for hardwood from protected forests has not decreased nor has the appetite for grazing land for cattle.

It’s not All Bad News!

Successful afforestation has been achieved in a number of countries, most notably Britain and Israel. Planting not only trees in the right areas but also ensuring that the right mix of trees and environmentally sound species are grown is key to make making afforestation a commercial and environmental success.

Organizations such as the Climate Community and Biodiversity Alliance are instrumental in setting standards, which can then be adopted elsewhere to ensure afforestation is a success.

Britain’s forests had been so depleted by the beginning of the 20^th century that only 5% of ancient woodland cover was left. Since the introduction of afforestation programmes across the country in 1919, British forest coverage has increased to 12%. A recent plan by the UK government to sell off woodland was met with such stern opposition that the plans had to be abandoned and the government had to make a quick u turn in policy. British forests now provide local communities with a valuable nature-based economy and offer recreational use to everyone. The wide-spread opposition to the UK government plans show how much British people care about their forests and how much education has achieved across the nation to tell people about the value of their environment.

Israel’s programmes are a credit to the successful implementation of afforestation. Nearly 70% of Israel’s forests are the result of afforestation. Even though harsh climactic conditions were quite a challenge, successful planting of a variety of tree species prevented the desert from expanding and created a healthy mix of vegetation ground cover, where biodiversity thrives today.